Bruges was a terrific little town, frozen in time about 400 years ago.

Bruges has this sort of computer-game type retail economy, seemingly based on just 3 products: Chocolate, Beer, and Lace

The Lace Museum in Bruges was amazing. I would never have gone on my own, but having been dragged by my wife, it was truly fascinating. I don't know if I had ever thought of how lace was made but it was more complex than I might have guessed. There was a local lacing club (for lack of a better word) meeting upstairs and we got to watch a bit of the process. The examples of extraordinary lace in the museum were simply amazing, I had never seen anything like it. Likely way more fine and delicate and detailed than you have ever seen. The machines, which knit clumsier lace products, were also quite a thing to watch in action

After Bruges, Amsterdam was an unbelievable contrast. Despite being a tourist town, Bruges was quite quiet. Amsterdam is... frenetic.

People have written many times about the bicycle thing in Amsterdam, but one does not really get a feel for it until it is actually experienced. Coming out of the train station there was a storage area with literally thousands of bikes. Bikes were everywhere. One had to watch every step to make sure one is not hit by a bike.

Amsterdam has some kind of weird Logan's Run things going on -- zillions of people in the street, but they are all under 30.

As a libertarian, I love that Amsterdam has legalized marijuana and prostitution. But as the only city in Europe that has effectively done so, it does create a problem in that it has become to Europe what Las Vegas is to the US. Its streets are full of bachelor parties and drunken college kids. The town has a lot of old-world splendor with its stately canal houses but it loses some of its charm as a visitor only casually interested in partaking of the debauchery.